Antonio Lauro

Antonio Lauro is probably Venezuela's best-known composer of classical music, although his name is probably not familiar to anyone but aficionados of guitar music. At the Caracas conservatory he started out on the academically approved piano, but hearing Paraguayan guitarist Agustín Barrios inspired him to switch to the guitar. That was in one respect his salvation and in another his downfall. Few Latin American composers have seen their works enter the international repertory, but Lauro's guitar pieces, especially his Venezuelan Waltzes, have been readily taken up by guitaris...